Regardless of the importance assigned to the role of organizing tasting events for customers, companies tend to overlook the significant role that can be played by strongly and actively encouraging employees to taste the products or services that are on offer.
If you have ever watched any reality TV cooking show, one of the principles that waiters have to strictly adhere to, is that they must never taste any of the dishes that they serve to a customer.
However, novice and inexperienced waiters seem to forget this rule, and they are told off by the chef for this negligence of theirs.
On the other hand, and talking from my own personal experience, I have never met a restaurant owner or manager that encourages his or her staff to actually taste what they serve to diners.
Of course, tasting a customer’s dish must not be allowed at any time, but there are other ways that waiters and other serving staff can develop a full knowledge of the tastes that they serve to their customers.
Don’t you think that it is irrational for a waiter to serve and try to explain the taste of a dish that he or she has never tasted before?
Believe it or not, this is standard practice in most restaurants all over the world.
Restaurant owners could counterargue by saying that it would not be possible for waiters to try every dish that is on the menu, due to cost reasons.
However, they fail to recognize the fact that this is absolutely necessary, regardless of the cost involved, which is surprisingly less than what they would actually expect.
At the end of the day, it’s like telling a sommelier to serve and advise on wines that he or she has never tasted before.
How can this be possible?
If you think that just by reading wine-related books and getting a relevant certificate, you can get the required knowledge to offer insightful advice to seasoned wine drinkers, then you probably lose an important point; it’s like trying to become an executive chef by only reading cooking books!
The same applies to literally every situation and industry where a product or a service is sold.
Getting your sales staff to obtain first-hand knowledge and experience of the products and/or services that they sell, can prove to be a powerful tool that can increase the customer base and boost sales, and have an equally strong effect to word-of-mouth marketing; only, this time, it’s employees, and not customers, those who spread the word, as a result of their personal experience.
Therefore, not only should companies not be afraid of letting their employees taste the products or services that they sell, but they should also encourage this practice by incorporating taste training within the context of general selling techniques and training.
Moreover, this could be viewed as part of a company’s Research and Development efforts, and, in fact, as an investment in enhancing employee skills in a very simple way, which can have a multiple benefit for the company, in terms of increased sales and a better image to consumers.
This article was originally published by me on Medium.com
You can read it here.
